Page 70

RACHELLE

T he beach during the day is bright and sunny, the sand warm as I lay back on the blanket, watching Ignacio and the guys throw a football around next to Liliana.

This is how we wanted to spend our last day of spring break.

Since I’m now done with my assignments for school, I insisted that they get their shit done early in the break so we could just hang out together.

They took me seriously, and we were able to enjoy a staycation at the house without too many distractions.

“Look at that,” Lili says, laughing as Theo launches himself at Nacio and takes him down to the ground. It leads to a wrestling match that has a lot of groping involved and a really hot makeout session before they get up to play again.

“It’s like night and day,” I murmur, glancing down at the ring on my finger. This made the tide start to change when Ignacio saw it. Jared didn’t tell anyone about the ring, or that he planned to give it to me on our first date.

The wheels started to turn for Ignacio, though the guys aren’t forgiven by him yet. A Latino man can hold grudges unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I’m taking things day by day. As it’s all I can do.

Liliana helped me find a dance studio that offers lessons, and the four of us went for our first one two days ago.

There’s nothing sexier in my eyes than when people can dance.

Jared and Nacio took turns trying to outdo each other while focused on us.

They learned the steps so easily, and I’m convinced that the right dance partner can make dancing easy and fun.

I had a blast, though Liliana teased me about the drool on my face. Since then, Nacio doesn’t seem as tense around Jared anymore.

“Do you think they’ll remember that hate sex is frowned upon on a public beach?” Liliana asks me, smirking as she watches them go back to playing.

We’re on a beach that isn’t as popular with the tourists, but is no less beautiful.

The umbrella is over the blanket to offer some shade, and I have a towel I bundled into a pillow for my head.

It’s so nice to lay out, and it’s something I haven’t been able to do in way too long.

I have no plans to get into the water, however, I can admit it’s pretty to look at.

I think I’ll always have an unhealthy fear of the wet stuff in nature, even with Jared insisting on teaching me how to swim. Sometimes, the things that fall through the cracks when you’re a kid is shit that can kill you.

“Maybe someone should remind them,” I tease her, beginning to get sleepy. Yawning, I curl up on the blanket in my bikini, and Liliana grins as she ghosts her hand up my skin before squeezing my hip.

“You should take a nap if you’re sleepy, baby,” she says. “We have plans for later tonight.”

Shivering at the promise behind her words, I nod. They want to play some games tonight at the house after making pizza together. There have been promises of naked poker and Twister. I have no idea what that’ll all mean for tonight, but I’m willing to bet there will be edging and orgasms.

That’s my kind of night.

Liliana glances at the bracelet on my wrist, the matching one to hers from high school. The hospital returned it along with my personal items when I “died” and Emil kept it. When he found out Liliana knew I was alive again, he made it a point to return it to her recently.

Now it’s firmly on my wrist, where it won’t move.

My stepfather has come by the house here and there to check in on us, giving Theo, Elijah, and Jared a good scare by reminding them to be good to me.

I always thought I’d miss a father figure to do things like this as I grew up, but Emil bridges the gap effortlessly.

He’s still working on tracking down this drug dealer with a Napoleon complex, hence his popping in and out of the house.

His latest visit was also because he blew up one of Emil’s warehouses.

The place was full of people. My heart sinks at the thought of so many that aren’t going to have enough to bury their family members.

It’s senseless and disgusting. I’ll gladly wear the bracelet if it means that it’ll keep me safe and Emil’s head in the game. I don’t want anything to happen to him because he was worried about me.

“I think a nap sounds good,” I agree, yawning again.

The guys drop the football to jog to the water, and Liliana stands.

“I’m going to go cool off in the water and keep the guys from getting too rough,” Lili says, standing. “Roll closer to the umbrella so you don’t get burned.”

Barrel rolling my body with my pillow, I grin up at her, getting comfortable as she laughs at me.

“So damn cute,” she says. “Enjoy your nap time.”

Watching her jog to the water’s edge, I smile as I watch them splash and play. Maybe one day I’ll get up the courage to sit by the surf without having memories of the creek trying to pull me under the surface.

Today isn’t that day though. My eyelids grow heavy as I huff out a breath, and I allow myself to relax as I get dragged into the darkness of sleep. I just need a few minutes…

My shoulders are really sore, my arms tight behind me as I struggle to pull myself from the dregs of sleep. It feels as if I’m at the bottom of a pit trying to climb out. The reminder of holes makes me shudder, causing more stress to my tightly bound body.

I can smell mildew and mold, the scent tickling my senses as I recoil from it. I can’t smell the ocean anymore. My arms try to move to stretch, but I find that I can’t.

Why can’t I move?

“You’re taking forever to wake up,” a deep, gruff voice says, kicking the hard chair I’m sitting in. Unfortunately, he kicks too hard, overbalancing the chair so it begins to tilt upward and fall back.

Gasping, the feeling of falling wakes me up completely, and the man catches the chair before it upends completely.

My eyes are open wide as I crash back onto all four legs in the steel chair.

My heart is pounding wildly, my anxiety screaming that I’m going to die as I gaze at the man in front of me.

He has pock marked cheeks that make them appear sunken in, his dark hair as curly and unkept as his beard.

His eyes appear almost black and full of hate, and I wonder what I did to deserve it.

My head feels heavy and my thoughts aren’t connecting well.

I feel as if I’m missing something very important.

I’m freezing, still wearing my bikini that was cute earlier today, but leaves me overexposed now.

I can feel his eyes crawling over me, making my skin pebble with goosebumps of revulsion.

My wrists are tied with something that’s digging into my skin, as if there are barbs on it.

Somehow, it gets even tighter whenever I attempt to move my arms, and if I really concentrate, I notice that I’m bound from my wrists to my elbow.

It’s not rope… maybe it’s wire? Whatever it is hurts, and I can feel blood beginning to trail down my skin.

The cold cement underneath my toes seems to make my body even colder, and I can see wine bottles in my peripheral vision.

Focus Rachelle!

His lips twist as he glares at me. I’m in a cellar of some kind.

“You’re obviously a bit confused,” he says, his voice thick with a Latin accent.

“That’s to be expected with the injection I gave you.

It’s something I’m working on creating into a street drug.

I had to improvise when I saw you completely unprotected and alone.

Your little girlfriend and boyfriends obviously don’t care much about you since they left you to play their frivolous games. ”

I know who he is now, but I give him a blank stare as if I don’t. Tiny dicked men love to talk, especially if they think they’re not getting the proper recognition. My head is beginning to pound, a side effect of his stupid drug. I hope Liliana makes him scream.

I can feel the weight of her bracelet hanging from my wrist. Help will come.

“You don’t seem to understand who I am,” el Tigre murmurs, his lips curling in anger.

“Let me tell you then, little girl. I’m going to make you scream, hurt you, rape you, and then leave you for dead on the lawn of that fancy house you live in, just like your stepfather did to someone I cared about.

You’re what’s wrong with this world. Over privileged little shits. ”

I continue to gaze at him, non-plussed, despite the shiver of fear I feel at the mention of rape. It won’t come to that. Even if it does, I’ll survive. I have to. I have people to live for.

“I see,” he growls, pulling a knife from his boot to begin picking his nails. It’s an intimidation tactic. I’m the adopted daughter of Emil Reyes. I sleep next to serial killers. The weeks of soaking up their attention and love have helped to shore up my strength. El Tigre can get fucked.

I try to get a feel for where I am without my eyes leaving him through my peripheral vision.

Stone walls surround me, and I think I may be in some kind of cellar due to the musty smell filling my senses.

If I’m underground, I wonder if that’ll mess with the signal.

However, Ignacio found me when I was buried under six feet of dense soil.

They’ll find me.

El Tigre’s fist reaches out fast as lightning, and my head snaps back as he punches me. My chair flips up again, and his hand grabs the seat between my legs to slam me back to the ground.

I’m panting as I struggle to get my vision to settle, my eye already swelling as I stare somewhere near his head. At least, I hope that’s true. Everything feels blurry and doubled. If he can do that with a single blow, I can’t imagine what he can accomplish if he decides to truly beat me.

I guess there won’t be any naked Twister tonight. A giggle erupts that’s incredibly inappropriate and dangerous. Fuck, only I would get loopy during an incoming concussion.

“Fucking stupid girl,” he groans. “ Eschuchame!”

“ ?Qué quieres? ” I mumble back.